Woman files 2 complaints after traffic stop

Maurissa Bennett filed the complaints separately, one on July 20 and the other on July 24. Springfield Police Chief Philip Thorne declined to comment, citing an open investigation.

ERYN DION News Herald Reporter @PCNHErynDion

SPRINGFIELD — A Springfield woman has filed two administrative complaints against the Springfield Police Department after she said an officer pointed a gun at her and her children during a traffic stop.

Maurissa Bennett filed the complaints separately, one on July 20 and the other on July 24. Springfield Police Chief Philip Thorne declined to comment, citing an open investigation.

Bennett was pulled over across from the Texaco on State 22 on July 14 by Investigator Jason Purdy, who was driving an unmarked vehicle, according to Springfield Police Department reports. In her complaint, Bennett said Purdy approached her car with his gun drawn and yelled at her to roll down her back window, where her four young children, ages ranging from 7 weeks to 7 years old, were buckled in.

“I rolled down the rear passenger window and Investigator Purdy then aimed his gun in the direction of my children and surveyed the back seat,” Bennett wrote in her complaint.

Bennett was told she was pulled over for “rolling a stop sign,” although she said there are no stop signs in that area. Two more officers arrived shortly, she said, including Sgt. Russell Voyles. Bennett said she attempted to record the traffic stop on her phone, but wrote in her complaint that Voyles stated he would “wait for me to finish recording” before continuing the stop.

When her 7-year-old began fidgeting in the back seat, Bennett said she told her son to stop moving “because they (the officers present) would shoot,” she wrote.

“I thought, please don’t let one of them move too fast or throw one of their toys,” Bennett said in an interview with The News Herald after the incident.

“I was hoping someone would stop by the side of the road and record or watch,” she continued, tearing up. “I was just like, ‘Please someone record this. Please.’ ”

Bennett said she was then told to exit the vehicle, where she was told her tag was not visible. She wrote Purdy and Voyles threatened to have “DCF come get your (expletive) kids” and was told to “shut my (expletive) mouth and that I talk too damn much.” Bennett said it was like a routine of “bad cop, worse cop” and at one point, she wrote, Voyles noticed Purdy’s aggression and said “he would talk to him.” Bennett wrote the ordeal had left her traumatized and fearing for her safety.

Bennett posted about the incident on her Facebook page on July 15 and the post received more than 130 comments, including one from Thorne, encouraging her to file a complaint. If his officers were out of line, he said, he wanted to know about it.

“We just want folks to understand what we do take our jobs seriously,” Thorne said when reached by phone before the complaint was filed. “We are public servants. There is a degree of professionalism, but we’re humans. We’re not perfect and if we don’t hit it, we want to fix it.”

Thorne said when he learned Bennett had had trouble obtaining a copy of the administrative complaint form, he printed out a copy and had his Assistant Chief, Barry Roberts, deliver it to Bennett personally. He said the matter will be investigated fully and he hopes his officers and Bennett can work on a corrective action. He said neither officer had complaints filed against them in the past.

“I can’t fix it if people don’t come to me to tell me,” Thorne said. “We can sit down and talk. If the officers were out of line, we have ways to provide corrective action.”

Bennett, however, said she is skeptical. She said in the time since she filed her complaint, she reportedly has seen Purdy driving slowly by her residence in his personal vehicle with the windows rolled down, prompting her second complaint, filed July 24.

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